06/15/2026
I am resharing this to include an email template that was sent to me to help with urging the county to change how they determine who gets funding for shelters.
Feel free to copy or edit for your own email.
Dear County Commissioners and County Admins,
I am writing to express my deep concern over the potential closure of LiFEBoat Services’ overnight shelter due to a county initiated cut of 75% of their shelter funding. LiFEBoat Services has created the only drop-in, low-barrier, non-referral shelter in Clatsop County. Their beds are relied upon daily by Columbia Memorial Hospital, Providence Seaside Hospital, the Astoria Police Department, Clatsop Behavioral Health, and The Harbor for discharges, crisis placements, and emergency stabilization. They are also relied upon by the community to offer beds to community members who do not fit the criterion for higher barriered shelter options.
Since opening in 2023, they have served 746 unique individuals through their shelter services, provided more than 85,716 services, and overseen over 14,349 shelter stays. They have been a critical part of the county’s emergency response system, and a crucial first step to longer-term shelters and permanent housing.
After the State’s initial direct award to LiFEBoat Services, I understand that the county gained control over all shelter funding allocations. This is when LiFEBoat Services’ shelter funding began getting cut. Their funding has now been cut by 82% of what they were originally awarded by the State, and 75% of what they were awarded last year, while other, higher barriered, shelters have only seen increases in their shelter funding. The formula being used by the county to determine funding allocations is designed to award funding to long-term, high barrier shelters, while penalizing the low barrier model. For instance, why is number of people served not included in the funding formula? Why are services provided not included in the funding formula? These are areas where emergency shelters excel, but those are not being factored into your allocations.
LiFEBoat’s low barrier shelter model is designed to have beds available EVERY night, to anyone, without discrimination, lengthy intake, or factors that prioritize some guests over others. We, the community, understand the challenges that come along with running a low-barrier, drop-in shelter. These models need more staffing, more training, more available services, more oversight, and ultimately more money per bed than long-term transitional shelters do. We ask that you take the time to learn about the challenges that low barrier shelters face and perhaps come to a better understanding of why a one size fits all funding formula is inequitable. We ask that you please reconsider the current funding formula that prioritizes high barrier, referral-based, long-term shelter models over low-barrier, drop-in, first come/first served shelter models. Our community will suffer with the closing of LiFEBoat’s shelter. They are the first stop for people entering into long-term shelters and permanent housing; it’s where people go to wait and to rebuild so that they have a chance at fitting the criterion requirements of other shelter programs.
We will have more people on the sidewalks, more people falling through the cracks, and we will be back at the same place we were in several years ago, wondering how to create an accessible first-stop space for people with nowhere else to go. LiFEBoat has done this work for us, now please help them stay alive.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
